“The Little Bird” Garrincha is regarded as the greatest winger and one of the greatest dribblers the world has ever seen. Many eminent football historians in Brazil and around the world refer to him being at least the equal of Pelé , was rated by many as the second greatest Brazilian footballer of all-time. He grew up in poverty with high right leg 6 cm shorter than the left. Rather than shying away from soccer after a childhood illness left his right leg bowing inward while the left bowed outward, he developed a devastating body swerve that mocked his body’s special anatomy. As a right-winger, He was known for his remarkable ball control, imagination, acceleration, crossing, dribbling skills and ability to create something from nothing, He also possessed a ferocious shot with either foot and was a gifted dead ball specialist known for free kicks and corners taken with the outside of his foot, Garrincha’s best career highlight was happened in World Cup 1962 which he could fulfill Brazilian after Pele was out of tournament because of injury. For his all matches in World Cup, Brazil only lost one match with him on the pitch. He was voted 8th and 20th the greatest footballer of the century from IFFHS and World Soccer’s poll, respectively, was voted 6th the best player in world cup history by France Football.

IndividualWorld Cup top scorer: 1962 (tied)World Cup Player of the Tournament: 1962World Soccer Player of the Year: 1962Brazilian Football Museum Hall of FameWorld Cup All-Time Team: 1994FIFA World Team of The Century: 1998

The defenders just stand up straight... staring at his feet and NOT the ball at all. Awful. Comedy football. At some points it's below walking pace, it's really that bad.

My favourite part is 3:04, where when faced with Garrincha being through on goal the keeper, instead of doing anything AT ALL to try and stop him, HOLDS HIS HANDS UP IN THE AIR!!! ...Just standing there, like Garrincha has a gun pointed at his head. O.o Is this a measure of Garrincha's ability, or are these defenders/this particular keeper just ******* ****??

"When we were winning leagues and European Cups at Real I always said Makelele was our most important player. There is no way myself Figo or Raúl would have been able to do what we did without Claude and the same goes for Liverpool and Gerrard."

I think his Acceleration and DS should come down, with these stats he's quicker than the likes of Ribery etc and having seen them both running flat out from a standing start with the ball I do not believe Garrincha was superior to these players. DA and Tech 98 too... His touch was good, but these stats make him over done. Ronaldinho is a player who also sits at 99 in DA and I think there is a gap between the two in terms of dribble accuracy, also, with his DS and ACC he is also quicker than him!! As we see in the video, he is not really exploding past one player, touching it round another and bursting between another couple, he had more space and he isn't physically as fast, or at least to me he doesn't appear so. The only argument is that he has a lower TS, but I don't think this compensates.

I don't think the defenders he played against were too organised, and though he had to deal with players who would intentionally go into matches to injure him, I don't feel the technical, tactical quality or athletic qualities of the opponents he was against warrants these stats, just because he was owning them. I feel Aiden McGeady would be near equally as superior to the average pre 1960's backline, they just were (for the most part) terrible IMO.

98 technique... I struggle to see what this is based on, really I do when I see other players struggling to get even 95 when they have an instant first touch far superior to certain players who sit on 98 and 99. I could be missing something, but I never saw him as 98 technique player. I am a big fan of him, one of my favourite players when I was young, but I think these stats seem off the mark.

"When we were winning leagues and European Cups at Real I always said Makelele was our most important player. There is no way myself Figo or Raúl would have been able to do what we did without Claude and the same goes for Liverpool and Gerrard."

No one has actually given a single constructive sentence as to why he has God stats despite playing against veritable slow-coaches, other than "Ex pro's say..." and "You obviously haven't seen his "best" games" which I have!! The biggest insult is books being used. Now, I can understand why books are good sources of information, and often you can get some great little bits out of them where other angles don't produce much, BUT!! If we rated people on books, then please give Gerrard 99 balance, shot acc and SPA.

Anyway, back to reality - I honestly don't see a world class accelerator in Garrincha, as evidenced in ACTUAL footage he is nowhere near reds for off the mark ability, so that's Acceleration and DS straight off that need to come down. :\

"When we were winning leagues and European Cups at Real I always said Makelele was our most important player. There is no way myself Figo or Raúl would have been able to do what we did without Claude and the same goes for Liverpool and Gerrard."

Firstly, let me say that Duncan Edwards was voted United's best ever player, and anyone who knows their stuff knows he is in no way the best player to play for them.

And secondly - ...You've completely ignored every constructive argument I've made waving in my face that "he was voted by so-and-so" it means nothing. If you watch Garrincha, then watch more modern football and a player like Ronaldinho in his prime, how can you say he's anywhere near as fast or agile as him? How can you say those defenders are as fast strong or organised as todays? That is what I am asking, it's all I want to know. Garrincha is one of my favourite players, but please let's be realistic. It was the 50's. :\ He was sloooooooow compared to the likes of Dinho and RomÃ¡rio.

Anyway, more to the point, if you're going to question my ability to judge a player - didn't you say Maradona was "crap imo" on msn?

He's voted the second best player ever! (And he was actually voted first until some tampering went on)

"When we were winning leagues and European Cups at Real I always said Makelele was our most important player. There is no way myself Figo or Raúl would have been able to do what we did without Claude and the same goes for Liverpool and Gerrard."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hHhaHSaTlQ&fmt=18 the very definition of the agility stat. Look at the speeds he changes direction, with full control of the ball, his acceleration and please then explain why Garrincha is even on the same planet, even in agility. :\

It's all I really want to know. I've seen football from the 50's, and I've seen modern football, and it's like going back to the stone age. ...Did Garrincha really move that fast? Or is he tricking your eyes by doing everything at lower speeds, requiring less physical balance, speed and agility because his opponents back then knew they couldn't stop him, as he was so far ahead of the bulk of what was on offer back then??

Maradona is perhaps a bad player to compare, because he was a freak of nature. But you still have the likes of Ronaldinho and RomÃ¡rio who also make Garrincha look a bit like a slow-coach with the ball.

"When we were winning leagues and European Cups at Real I always said Makelele was our most important player. There is no way myself Figo or Raúl would have been able to do what we did without Claude and the same goes for Liverpool and Gerrard."